Hey there! I've never believed in karma before today, and I still don't entirely- but after the way the game panned out today you have to start believing in it if you're a Fulham fan. I think I should start with an obvious statement, Darren Bent is a complete twat. Actually, who knew Darren Bent could run?! Its the fact he was completely useless for us last season, and then the fact he celebrated in front of us like a cocky prick which has enraged Fulham fans to the extent it did in my opinion. I also don't see the need to run the full length of the pitch, fair enough if it was in the first half- and we have to thank Bettinelli that that wasn't the case. But its just overreaching, and it came back to bite him- as this blog will probably do when we face Brighton in roughly a month at the Cottage.
I had to laugh that LVC and Hugo scored today, when I took delivery of their Huddersfield "Poppy" shirts yesterday- but hey, you lot can thank me later. The first goal was a quality finish from Hugo, and with the consistency with which Hugo is scoring he could make a run at being Top Scorer in the division- and is at this stage the only real contender we have for our own Top Goalscorer. The finish left Stockdale completely helpless, as did the second. We've been due a Deflected Winner for a while, I still haven't gotten over the deflected winner in Hamburg to be honest. We perhaps didn't deserve the winner on balance, however as I said... karma.
Bettinelli had a very good game in my opinion, there really wasn't much he could have done for the goal once the ball took the deflection off of Bodurov. However in the first half especially Bettinelli made a number of good saves, and the one where he saved Bents point blank header with his leg was sublime. As Stockdale was on the other side I'm briefly going to touch on his performance as well- I don't really remember us testing Stockdale to a point, however we still managed to put two goals past him. I wish Stockdale (and Hughes) the best, and the way Brighton are playing they could (as we still could) be in another relegation fight, I just hope Bents loan isn't extended so I can wish the best for Brighton after we play them again in December.
I thought our defence performed remarkably well all things considered, we were without arguably our best Centre-Back- and we had a debutant Right-Back and they never looked out of their depth- something which did happen on occasion against Brentford. I thought Grimmer performed well all things considered, his Yellow Card was a bit stupid- but that will come with experience- and considering the threat Brighton can pose down the Left-Wing I thought he dealt well with the threat. Perhaps most encouragingly, Hutchinson had a game where one of the talking points following the game wasn't about Hutchinson. He performed alright against Brentford, but every other game he's started in he's been pretty shocking, Ipswich he was at fault for both goals in my opinion, Forest he was pretty woeful, Blackburn he nearly killed someone and in the Cup against Derby he was ripped to shreds. However I thought he had an unremarkable game today, which all things considered was a good thing on his part- although that was probably helped by the fact Bent was about three stone overweight and couldn't really get the better of him because of that. I was impressed with Bodurov today, once again his game was pretty unremarkable- but because of the stream I was watching having a really wide perspective I noticed him quite a lot, and I was really impressed with his off the ball movement- as well as when he was called into action. Stafylidis had a good game as well, I think he's trying to nail down his place before Amorebieta gets fit- however one thing Amorebieta does so well is crossing, and thats an area he definitely needs to improve on.
LVC was sublime today, I've said it before and I'll say it again- under "him" we were playing players like Ryan Williams and Stafylidis at Central Midfield when we had this gem being wasted. His goal was fortunate yes, but everything he did today was great- and out of anyone on our team he deserved a goal the most. His defensive work was also outstanding, and all things considered I'd make him the Man of the Match from todays game. Parker had an unremarkable game, but in the last 15 minutes after we scored the second his experience shone through- you just have to look at how Colunga got his second yellow to see how calm Parker was, and how he stayed on the ball rather than hoofing the ball out. I thought Hyndman was good when we was on, our midfield is an interesting dynamic with the addition of Fofana we effectively have 6 Midfielders who can all stake a claim for a place in the starting eleven. Fofana looked good when he came on, I'm not entirely sold on him- yet. I thought he gave the ball away a bit too easily on occasion, but on balance he was full of energy- and had a certain aura about him that has be excited about what he can do in a Fulham shirt.
This is the Bryan Ruiz Appreciation Society part of the blog. He was great today, he's never going to be a workhorse type midfielder- nor do we need him to fulfill that role. After Brentford when he was played out wide I was hoping he'd be played centrally today, he did and he played great. The way he linked the play up was great, and he should have had a goal in the first half when he decided to dribble rather than shoot- but thats the type of player Bryan is so we just have to accept that and move on. I hope his injury isn't too severe, especially now we're getting into December and theres a countdown clock on his career in a Fulham shirt.
I've already spoken about the goals, but Hugo was great all round today. As I said in a previous blog I didn't follow Wigan avidly, but I don't remember Hugo ever being on this type of form for them- although it is a step down the Championship is also a different proposition in terms of how you have to play so its not always the case that a Premier League striker will score buckets in the Championship. Its hard to believe how far Hugo has come in the eyes of the fans since Sheffield United when he was crying after he was booed off to now. McCormack was a bit hit and miss today, today was a rare occasion where McCormack didn't either score or assist- but he also wasn't completely absent and he linked the play well when required and did pose a threat to the Brighton defence- one criticism I have to have with McCormack today was he was pretty wasteful. Directly after the scored, perhaps out of frustration he wasted possession by taking shots that seldom go in- but at the end of the day we won, so I can write it off.
We were by no means "perfect" today, I wouldn't even describe our 90 minute performance as "good". Watching on my stream I was getting ridiculously frustrated by our lack of ambition most of the time. We completed so many short passes on the edge of the box without trying to properly penetrate their defence it was ridiculous, and is definitely something we need to work on.
Thanks for reading, in a shocking turn of events we're not playing midweek... again *gasp* so my next Fulham blog will be in the build to the Watford game barring something major happening. Thanks again for reading as always any feedback is appreciated- and lets make sure every Fulham fan gives Bent hell.
No comments:
Post a Comment